LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The constitution provides for freedom of conscience and religion. It states freedom of religion includes the freedom to profess or to accept a religion by personal choice as well as to manifest that religion, either individually or collectively, publicly or privately, by worshipping, praying, participating in ceremonies, performing rites, or teaching. It states freedom to express religion may be limited only by law when necessary to defend state security, public order, health, morals, or the rights of others. The constitution states, “Churches and other religious organizations shall have equal rights.” It stipulates the relationship between the state and churches and other religious organizations shall be based on the principle of respect for autonomy and mutual independence. The constitution specifies that relations with the Roman Catholic Church shall be determined by an international concordat concluded with the Holy See and by statute, and relations with other churches and religious organizations shall be determined by statutes adopted pursuant to agreements between representatives of these groups and the Council of Ministers.

According to the constitution, freedom of religion also includes the right to own places of worship and to provide religious services. The constitution stipulates parents have the right to ensure their children receive a moral and religious upbringing and teaching in accordance with their convictions and their own religious and philosophical beliefs.

The constitution states religious organizations may teach their faith in schools if doing so does not infringe on the religious freedom of others, and it acknowledges the right of national and ethnic minorities to establish institutions designed to protect religious identity. The constitution prohibits parties and other organizations with programs based on Nazism or communism.

The penal code criminalizes the insult of religious feelings of others “by publicly insulting an object of religious worship or a place intended for the public performance of religious rites” as an offense to religious sentiment. The penalties range from a fine, typically 5,000 zloty ($1,300), to a two-year prison term. The same penalties apply for incitement to hatred on the grounds of religious differences or the lack of religious affiliation. The law also provides for up to a three-year prison term for publicly insulting a person or a group of persons and for violating the bodily integrity of a person on the grounds of their religious affiliation or lack of religious denomination. In addition, the law requires that all broadcasts “respect the religious feelings of the audiences and, in particular, respect the Christian system of values.”

By law, anyone who publicly assigns the “Polish state or nation” responsibility or joint responsibility for Nazi crimes committed by the Third Reich during World War II may be sued by the Institute of National Remembrance and relevant nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), fined, and forced to retract the offending statement and pay compensation to the state or a charity.

Separate laws govern the relationship of each of 15 religious groups with the state, outlining the structure of that relationship and procedures for communal property restitution. The 15 religious groups are the Roman Catholic Church, Polish Orthodox Church, Evangelical-Augsburg (Lutheran) Church, Evangelical Reformed Church, Methodist Church, Baptist Church, Seventh-day Adventist Church, Polish National Catholic Church, Pentecostal Church, Union of Jewish Communities in Poland, Mariavite Church, Old Catholic Mariavite Church, Old Eastern Orthodox Church, Muslim Religious Union, and Karaim Religious Union. Marriages performed by officials from 11 of these groups do not require further registration at a civil registry office; however, the Mariavite Church, Muslim Religious Union, Karaim Religious Union, and Old Eastern Orthodox Church do not have that right. There are an additional 170 registered religious groups and five aggregate religious organizations (the Polish Ecumenical Council, Polish Buddhist Union, Biblical Society, Evangelical Alliance, and Council of Protestant Churches) for which there are no individual statutes defining their relationship with the state. The status of these groups and organizations is regulated under the Law on Guarantees for Freedom of Conscience and Religion.

The law states that relations between the state and all churches and other religious unions are based on respect for freedom of conscience and religion. This includes separation of churches and other religious groups from the state; freedom to perform religious functions; equality of all churches and religious groups, no matter how their legal situation is regulated; and legal protections for churches and other religious groups within the scope defined by the law.

In accordance with the law, the government and the Roman Catholic Church participate in the Joint Government-Episcopate Committee, cochaired by the Minister of Interior and Administration (MIA) and a bishop, currently the Archbishop of Krakow, which meets regularly to discuss Catholic Church-state relations. The government also participates in a joint government-Polish Ecumenical Council committee, cochaired by an MIA undersecretary and the head of the Polish Ecumenical Council (an association composed of seven denominations and two religious associations, all of them non-Roman Catholic Christian), that meets to discuss issues related to minority Christian churches operating in the country. In addition, there are separate joint committees consisting of government representatives and representatives of the Evangelical Alliance, Lutheran Church, and Polish Orthodox Church.

Religious groups not covered by specific legislation may register with the MIA, but registration is not obligatory. To register, the law requires a group to submit a notarized application with the personal information of at least 100 citizen members; details regarding the group’s activities in the country; background on the group’s doctrine and practices; a charter and physical address; identifying information about its leaders; a description of the role of the clergy, if applicable; and information on funding sources and methods of new member recruitment. If the ministry rejects the registration application, religious groups may file another application with the ministry or appeal to an administrative court. By law, the permissible grounds for refusal of an application are failure to meet formal requirements or inclusion in the application of provisions that may violate public safety and order, health, public morality, parental authority or freedom, and rights of other persons.

Unregistered groups may worship, proselytize, publish, or import religious literature freely and bring in foreign missionaries, but they have no legal recognition and are unable to undertake certain functions such as owning property or holding bank accounts in their name. In addition to having the right to own property and open bank accounts, the 190 registered and statutorily recognized religious groups and organizations receive other privileges not available to unregistered groups, such as the right to teach religion in schools and selective tax benefits, including exemptions from import tariffs and property and income taxes on their educational, scientific, cultural, and legal activities. Their official representatives are also exempt from income and property taxes.

Four commissions oversee communal religious property restitution claims submitted by their respective statutory filing deadlines: one each for the Jewish community, Lutheran Church, and Orthodox Church, and one for all other denominations. The commissions function in accordance with legislation providing for the restitution to religious communities of property they owned that was nationalized during or after World War II. A separate commission overseeing claims by the Roman Catholic Church completed its work in 2011. The MIA and the respective religious community each appoint representatives to the commissions.

The law states decisions by the commission ruling on communal property claims may not be appealed, but the Constitutional Tribunal ruled in 2013 that parties could appeal commission decisions in administrative courts. According to religious representatives on the joint commissions, parties continue to appeal final decisions by the commissions. The law does not address communal properties the government sold or turned over to new private owners after World War II.

There is no comprehensive national law governing restitution of property that previously belonged to private individuals. Members of religious groups, like other private claimants, may pursue restitution through the courts. A 2021 law prohibits challenges to any administrative decisions made 30 or more years earlier, restricting the ability of individuals to seek the return of private property seized during the Nazi occupation or communist era. Only individuals who successfully challenged administrative decisions prior to enactment of the law are able to seek return of their property or compensation in the courts.

The law authorizes Warsaw city authorities to resolve expeditiously longstanding restitution cases affecting properties in Warsaw being used for public purposes. Warsaw city officials must post a notification of specific public properties for a six-month period, during which original owners of the property must submit their claims. At the end of the six-month period, Warsaw city authorities may make a final determination on the disposition of the property, either declaring the property shall remain public and not be subject to any future claims or returning the property or paying monetary compensation to the original owner.

In accordance with the law, all public and private schools teach optional religion classes. Schools at all grade levels must provide instruction in any of the registered faiths if there are at least seven students requesting it. Each registered religious group determines the content of classes on its faith and provides the teachers, who receive salaries from the state. Students may request to take an ethics class instead of a religion class or opt out of both classes.

Citizens have the right to sue the government for constitutional violations of religious freedom, and the law prohibits discrimination or persecution based on religion or belief.

The constitution recognizes the right to conscientious objection to military service on religious grounds but states such objectors may be required to perform alternative service as specified by law.

The commissioner for human rights is responsible for safeguarding human and civil freedoms and rights, including the freedom of religion and conscience, specified in the constitution and other legal acts. The commissioner is independent of the government and appointed by parliament.

The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

GOVERNMENT PRACTICES

Abuses Limiting Religious Belief and Expression

According to the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, certain defamation and public insult cases, especially with respect to offending religious sentiment, posed a risk of limiting freedom of expression and stifling free public debate.

On April 23, the Czestochowa Regional Court found two women guilty of offending religious sentiment for carrying a picture of the Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo during an equality (LGBTQI+ pride) march in Czestochowa in 2021. The court sentenced one woman to five months of community service and fined the other 2,000 zloty ($510). The two women appealed the judgment, and the case was pending at year’s end.

On September 21, the Supreme Court struck down the Poznan District Court’s decision to uphold the acquittal of a man charged with public incitement to murder of a priest and to hatred on the grounds of religious differences, and insulting followers of the Catholic Church. The Supreme Court returned the case to the district court for a new trial. While participating in a Mr. Gay Poland event in Poznan in 2019, the man had simulated cutting the throat of an effigy of Archbishop of Krakow Marek Jedraszewski, who had previously criticized what he described as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender ideology.

On November 21, the Poznan Appeals Court overturned a March decision by the Poznan District Court that acquitted 32 persons charged with malicious disruption of a religious service and remanded the case to the district court for another trial. The case referred to a 2020 protest against antiabortion legislation, in which the 32 persons entered the Poznan Catholic Cathedral and disrupted the Sunday Mass.

Abuses Involving the Ability of Individuals to Engage in Religious Activities Alone or In Community with Others

Citing various deficiencies in the applications, the MIA denied the registration of four religious groups during the year: the Church of the Risen (applied in 2020), the Shekinah Christian Church (applied in 2021), Vedic Society Religious Union (applied in 2021), and the “Wisdom of Nature” Church (applied in 2022). In addition, ruling the applicants did not meet the criteria for registering as a religious group, the MIA discontinued the administrative proceedings to register the Kriya Yoga Spiritual Path (applied in 2019), “Tsechen Menri Ling” organization (applied in 2021), and Church of People of the Sun (applied in 2021) and refused to initiate the registration procedure for the Polish Union of Early Buddhism (applied in 2022). During the year, the MIA removed the Hatha Yoga Union “Gate to Yoga” group from the registry at the request of the group.

In January, the MIA upheld its earlier decision to discontinue the registration procedure of the Self-Family group (also known as Friendship Family, which applied in 2020). In March, the group filed an appeal with the Warsaw Administrative Court. On April 6, the MIA sent a response to the court, requesting that it dismiss the complaint. At year’s end, the court had not ruled on the case.

According to MIA statistics, between January 1 and late October (October 25 for the Orthodox Church and October 23 for other religious groups), the religious community property commissions resolved 36 communal property claims out of approximately 2,774 pending claims by religious groups. (The government did not issue figures covering the same period in 2022, but between January 1 of that year and dates ranging between August and November, depending on the religious group, it resolved 100 claims by religious groups.) Of the 36 resolved claims, 25 were by the Jewish community, six by the Orthodox Church, three by the Lutheran Church, and two by unidentified members of the “all other denominations” group. As of late October, the commissions had cumulatively resolved, either partially or entirely, 3,013 of the 5,504 claims by the Jewish community that the commission deemed valid; 996 of 1,182 claims by the Lutheran Church; 385 of 472 claims by the Orthodox Church; and 97 of 170 claims by all other denominations.

The Jewish community continued to report the pace of Jewish communal property restitution was slow, involved considerable legal expense, and often ended without any recovery of property or other compensation for claimants.

Legal experts expressed concern that the law authorizing Warsaw authorities to resolve expeditiously longstanding restitution cases affecting properties being used for public purposes continued to limit the ability of claimants to reclaim property unjustly taken from their lawful owners during the World War II and Communist eras, including from Jews and members of other religious minorities. Authorities enacted the law with the stated aim of ending abusive practices in the trading of property owners’ claims by specialized law firms.

In November, Warsaw city authorities stated that since the 2015 law had entered into force, the city had resolved approximately 940 dormant claims filed before 1950, an increase of 294 in the total of resolved claims since the previous year. These included the rejection of a total of 433 restitution claims against public properties since 2015, an increase of 132 since 2022. There was no information available on the identity of those claiming prior ownership or how many of them belonged to religious minority groups.

A special government commission continued to investigate accusations of irregularities in the restitution of private property in Warsaw after the transition to democracy. Several NGOs and lawyers representing claimants, including lawyers representing Holocaust survivors or their heirs, stated the commission had a negative effect on private property restitution cases, as administrative and court decisions had slowed in response to the commission’s decisions.

Abuses Involving Discrimination or Unequal Treatment

Media and NGOs, such as the Never Again Association and the Open Republic Association, reported instances of antisemitic and anti-Muslim statements made by parliamentarians, party leaders, and electoral candidates from the Law and Justice (PiS, the ruling party at the time), Confederation, and Kukiz’15 Parties. The Never Again Association published a report on hate speech used during the parliamentary election campaign in October and documented anti-Muslim, as well as antisemitic, speech throughout the year. The Open Republic Association monitored public media for hate speech during the electoral campaign and reported it observed significantly fewer antisemitic comments compared with previous campaigns.

The Never Again Association reported that in July, a then member of parliament from the Confederation Party, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, suggested on X (formerly Twitter) that dark-skinned Muslims were responsible for criminal acts on the streets in France and that violence against them would be acceptable. Korwin-Mikke wrote, “I don’t understand the French problem with immigrants? We should hand out guns to white heterosexual French people – and pass an amnesty and a bonus for anyone who shoots a bandit, robber, thief, or rapist in the act. And announce it in Arabic, too.”

In July, Robert Bakiewicz, former head of the Independence March Association, a group considered to be antisemitic by the Never Again Association, and a PiS Party candidate, appeared on the National Media channel broadcast on Facebook and called then opposition candidates “implementers of certain actions that are beneficial to the Federal Republic of Germany and also to various Jewish organizations that are currently looking for another scapetoad [scapegoat] – to pay, to pay some reparations for the Second World War.” The Never Again Association called Bakiewicz’s statements antisemitic, and Facebook subsequently removed them from the platform.

On May 10, during a meeting organized by the Confederation Party, professor at the Lublin Catholic University and Confederation candidate for parliament Ryszard Zajaczkowski said, “We face the greatest totalitarianism in history, compared to which the Auschwitz camp could be called a recreation camp.” On July 11, during another public meeting, Zajaczkowski said that, in addition to the German and Russian atrocities perpetrated during World War II and shortly after, Poles had also been victims of “the Jewish genocide,” which he said referred “to the actions of the Jews who got involved, especially after the war, but also during the war, for example in the Soviet apparatus of oppression, in the NKVD [former Soviet secret police], and then in the Security Service.” On July 14, the Lublin Catholic University initiated disciplinary proceedings against Zajaczkowski. At year’s end, there was no information available as to the result of those proceedings.

Cochairman of the Confederation Party Krzysztof Bosak denied the idea of the existence of “Islamophobia” in a radio interview on August 29. He said the term “exists so that we don’t argue with some of the ideas of sharia.”

According to media reports, some politicians sought to restrict academic freedom by threatening funding and stifling accurate discussion of the Holocaust. For example, in April, senior government officials criticized Barbara Engelking, a well-known Holocaust historian, who said in a television interview that modern Poles falsify history by exaggerating the amount of help Poles provided to Jews during World War II. Then Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on social media those were “scandalous words,” adding they had nothing to do with reliable historical knowledge. Then Education and Science Minister Przemyslaw Czarnek threatened to cut funding for the Polish Center of Holocaust Research of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, which Engelking headed. Media reported some civil society observers, museums, scientists, and historians, such as the Open Republic Association, Scientific Council of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and Jewish Historical Institute Association, made public statements in support of Engelking and described the government’s reaction as a form of persecution.

Media reported that on May 30, Grzegorz Braun, a Confederation Party member of parliament, interrupted Polish-Canadian historian Jan Grabowski’s Holocaust lecture at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw. Braun got up from his chair, took a microphone from its stand, and smashed it against the lectern. Grabowski’s lecture was entitled, “Poland’s (growing) problem with Holocaust history.” Braun refused to leave the building when police arrived. In a June 1 statement, Yad Vashem Chair Dani Dayan remarked, “This incident represents a new low in attempts to stifle discussion about the complicity of Poles in the persecution and murder of their Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust. This act of vandalism … is an attack on academic freedom, on the historical record, and on Holocaust remembrance.”

On December 12, Braun used a fire extinguisher to put out Hanukkah candles during a Hanukkah celebration in the foyer of the parliament building, an incident widely denounced as antisemitic by a broad spectrum of political leadership. Parliament Speaker Szymon Holownia called Braun’s actions “absolutely scandalous,” and parliament levied the highest possible fine on him. Prime Minister Tusk called Braun’s behavior “a disgrace” and said it could not be repeated. Catholic Cardinal Grzegorz Rys, Archbishop of Lodz and the chair of the Polish Bishops’ Conference for Dialogue with Judaism, declared, “I am ashamed and apologize to the entire Jewish community in Poland.” Slawomir Mentzen, one of the leaders of the Confederation Party, issued a statement saying, “I condemn the act of Grzegorz Braun.” Prosecutors opened an investigation into the incident on December 13.

On September 11, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage gave an award to writer and publicist Rafal Ziemkiewicz, who in the past, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, made antisemitic comments on social media, in his books, and in video recordings. For example, the center stated that in 2021, Ziemkiewicz said in an internet video that the victims in a mass killing of Jews by their neighbors in Jedwabne in 1941 deserved their fate. In a September 20 statement, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s director of Eastern European Affairs, Efraim Zuroff, criticized the award as a “vicious insult to the victims of the Holocaust and the survivors, as well as to Jews the world over.”

In February, media reported the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage’s Patriotic Fund awarded three million zloty ($765,000) in grants to two organizations that human rights groups called antisemitic: the Independence March Association and the Independence March Units.

A police official reported that efforts under an action plan to combat hate crimes and hate speech allowed police to effectively respond to an antisemitic incident at a march in Warsaw in October and cooperate with prosecutors on the case. In 2022, the National Police approved the action plan for 2022-25 against hate speech and hate crimes based on nationality, ethnicity, race, and religion as well as the promotion of fascism and other totalitarian ideologies. The plan followed the first action plan for 2018-21 and used the non-legally binding International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism. The National Police also used the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe legal definition of hate crimes in their work.

Crucifixes continued to be displayed in both the upper and lower houses of parliament, as well as in many other public buildings, including public school classrooms.

On March 3, the Torun Regional Court decided to discontinue the case against then opposition Member of Parliament Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, who was charged with “malicious disruption of a religious service” and offending religious sentiment in 2022. On April 17, the Torun District Court upheld this decision. In 2020, Scheuring-Wielgus displayed a banner protesting a Constitutional Tribunal ruling against abortion in front of the altar of a Catholic church.

Multiple members of the government expressed support for Holocaust education, remembrance, and commemoration and publicly spoke against antisemitism on multiple occasions. To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, President Andrzej Duda, then Prime Minister Morawiecki, and then Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau posted messages on social media commemorating Holocaust victims and emphasized the importance of continued Holocaust remembrance. Secretary of State in the Presidential Chancellery Wojciech Kolarski and then Deputy Senate Speaker Michal Kaminski participated in a commemoration ceremony at the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.

In March, then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture and National Heritage Piotr Glinski attended a conference in Brussels to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He said there should be no room for antisemitism in Poland, noting there were approximately 150 antisemitic incidents recorded in Poland per year. He said these often took the form of vandalism and elicited condemnation from the government and the public, adding that antisemitism should be fought in all its forms.

On April 18, then Prime Minister Morawiecki paid tribute to thousands of Warsaw Ghetto Jews killed by Nazi Germans during WWII. In a letter to the participants in a related ceremony, Morawiecki wrote, “The tragic chapter of our heritage is our common fate during the war, which is clearly symbolized by the Monument to the Common Martyrdom of Jews and Poles in Warsaw.” He added, “Together with you I bow my head and pay tribute to those murdered.”

On April 19, President Duda participated in the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. During his speech, he referred to the Jewish insurgents as a “symbol of bravery, determination and courage, our heroes, who fought for a free Poland.” President Duda also said, “Today we bow our heads low before the heroes of the Ghetto Uprising, those who fought against hatred and Nazism for their freedom and dignity, Polish Jews, Polish citizens, who never gave up, never lost their spirit, who are a great example for all of us to this day.” The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage also organized a commemorative concert.

On July 21, Secretary of State in the Presidential Chancellery Kolarski and Civic Coalition Member of Parliament Michal Szczerba participated in the march to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the deportation of Polish Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka death camp.

On November 16, then Deputy Minister of Culture Jaroslaw Sellin attended the commemoration of the 83rd anniversary of the construction of the Warsaw Ghetto wall. He stated the fragment of the wall is a symbol of antisemitism, which took the form of anti-Israelism and anti-Zionism, and that “standing by such a wall, we must agree to oppose these forms of modern antisemitism.”

On January 25, President Duda hosted a New Year’s meeting for representatives of various churches, religious groups, and national and ethnic minorities. He expressed appreciation for assistance religious groups provided to war refugees from Ukraine and thanked attendees for participating in the event, stating that such meetings built the strength of the state and the community. President Duda asked that participants “look at each other with kindness, with understanding, that we look for paths that lead us to understanding, to resolving questionable, sometimes contentious issues – as in life.”

On June 30, the Warsaw District Court registered the Comrades as a new political party. The party was led by Wojciech Olszanski, one of the main organizers of several antisemitic rallies across the country, and the group was widely considered by NGOs such as the Never Again Association and the Open Republic Association as antisemitic.

The government is a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.